We are remodelling our kitchen/living room. It is an old farm house that has been remodeled countless times through the years.
We are taking all of the paneling off of the walls and putting up drywall.
We are wanting to raise this header so it is less obtrusive.

Ideally, we would get rid of the 2x4s up top and just raise the header to the top. We would then put new 2x4s below the header, on top of the side 2x4s.

The problem is I do not know how to secure the joist above the header while we make the move.
Also, the header looks very large for what it is actually holding up. It seems there should at least be 2 2x4s on each side of the header.